Bumping Our Way Into Colorado – Trinidad, CO
Bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, crash…
Bumpity, bumpity, bumpity, crash…
“was that the slide wood paneling?!?”
We’d been driving on this bumpy, grinding, shock-shattering, back-breaking backcountry road for what seemed like an eternity, and there was no end in sight. Nothing but miles of empty, achingly remote landscape with only the barest of features to relax the eye. It was hot, the sun baking on our front windshield and the view was a field of seemingly infinite monotony. At the times the road shimmered and faded into a watery mirage, tricking your mind into thinking you were driving into a lake. Other times it morphed into a hypnotic blur. If it weren’t for the jarring bumps you’d risk falling asleep from sheer tedium.
I used to joke back in the day that I could always tell when I entered California, even with my eyes shut and it was all about the road quality. You’d go from super-smooth Nevada and you’d hit the first pothole. Bang! Welcome to California! Some of the worst roads we’ve driven in the country have been there too. I-5/hwy99 just north of LA comes to mind, the one and only time our TV rattled straight off its hinges. Our other worst ever road was I-10 in the East coming through Louisiana. Whoo whee…rock n’roll.
But this road, this Eastern Colorado po-dunk road was right up there.
We usually love taking 2-lane backroads instead of the main Interstates. Most of the time they’re scenic, traffic-free and soooo much more relaxing without 18-wheelers flying by all the time. Over the past few days we’d been lulled into the pleasant (and most excellent) experience we’d had driving 385 through Nebraska. It was a great road, flat, smooth and thoroughly enjoyable to drive.
All that changed when we entered Eastern Colorado on hwy 71.
The bumps started almost immediately and for close to ~300 miles they didn’t stop except for rare (and frankly psychologically torturous) stretches of smooth asphalt. I guess we could have turned around, but once we committed we were..well committed…and we kept thinking it had to get better, right? Just around 7 hours of earthquake-quality miles later we finally arrived at our destination thoroughly shaken, well-stirred and exhausted. It took 2 hours of rest and hard alcohol before the rig stopped moving.
This was our first time in Eastern Colorado and I can’t imagine we’ll drive this route again. We’ve spent several summers in the mountains of Western Colorado, the area you always imagine in your minds eye when you think of this state -> the beautiful Rockies, stunning 10,000 foot peaks, sweet alpine lakes and luscious forest, that kind of thing. But Middle-Eastern Colorado is very different. It’s a high plains desert, parched from the huge, moisture-sucking mountains to the west, incredibly remote and barren, dry and featureless, and with very, very bumpy backroads. I guess it’s interesting to see…once…but I wouldn’t recommend the drive in a big rig…more than once.
But we made it through and our final destination was going to give us a view, some history, a few brews and 4 blissful, glorious, stationary nights of NOT moving! We’d arrived at Trinidad a historic mining town founded in 1862 in the central southern part of the state. Here the flat plains actually start to rise again and you’re greeted with rolling hills, towering red mesas and green pinyon pine. After the hard, bleak drive down the Eastern side your eyes feast on the myriad of forms and colors, soaking in the greens, marveling at the downtown red brick buildings, reveling in rise of the mountains. Our repose was at Trinidad Lake State Park (review coming) and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. We spent several days just sitting still (i.e. NOT moving) and then drove into town for a short downtown sightsee/walking tour and a few brews.
It’s always interesting to feel the “vibe” of a place, a very wishy-washy feeling that I can’t scientifically describe, but that every place has. Paul and I usually feel it instantly, at the same time, and typically in exactly the same way (which I guess is what makes us such great long-term travel companions). Trinidad is a very visually very appealing town with lots of historic brick buildings and beautiful cathedrals. Walking downtown is a photo and architectural treat, but vibe-wise it just felt a tad…how can I put it…depressed. It’s a town with enormous potential, and it’s got the beginnings of something very interesting happening (a recent Indie Film Festival, art, some cool museums), but it’s just not quite there yet, at least that was how it felt to us.
As we walked the paved sidewalks we wondered where that final spark would come from, and it wasn’t until we went to the local brewery (which is actually ~5 miles north of downtown) that we found it.
Now, regular blog readers will find it no surprise that beer would make us happy, but when I say this was the highlight of our visit here I mean much more than that. Dodgeton Creek Brewing Company is gorgeous little adobe building (it used to be a salsa factory, apparently) that puts out some wonderful beers. They’ve only been around for ~13 months, but they have 10 beers on tap all of which are high quality and that we thoroughly enjoyed. Their IPA’s and stouts were both tasty beers, but our favs were actually the Red Dirty Lil Ale and the Munich Helles, both very flavorful and creative (I recommend trying them all since it’s only $10 for 10 tasters).
What made the experience even better however was that we met one of the owners (Carrie) as well as a couple of locals. Most of these folks come here from other places to seek a different life, away from the humdrum of big cities and traffic, and that reflects in their open and friendly attitude. They invited us warmly in, chatted about the area and their stories, shared brews and enjoyed our company. And that was the very spark we were looking for, the people investing in the local economy and creating vibrant new businesses. Trinidad’s got a long history of boom and bust (like many old Western mining towns), but these folks are infusing the area with new energy and if this brewery is any indication of where the town is going it’s got a bright future ahead!
The welcoming energy was palpable and we felt so comfortable here that we ended up hanging around for several hours. Honestly (and I’m not just saying this because the brewery is the only one within ~85-miles), if you come here you should stop by and say hello to Carrie and the team. You’ll leave with a warm, fuzzy feeling that isn’t just from the beer. Just don’t take Hwy 71 to get here 🙂
NOTE/ Dodgeton Creek Brewing Company is 100% dog-friendly, even indoors!! They also have a lovely outdoor seating area.
That’s it from our quick CO stop. We’re finally entering New Mexico, the first time we’ve been in that state since 2011. On the menu are more beers, green chili and of course, balloons. Land of Enchantment here we come!
Useful Links:
We were just in that area and agree the roads are bad. Trinidad has suffered from the loss of the gas production in the area. Use to be the sex change capital of America, but that has changed also. They were performed at the hospital there.
We like staying in LaVeta, Co.at I Love Lucy’s. Cute town and you can walk every where. It is our spot over before entering NM and our favorite town Taos.
I read about the whole sex change history while we were in town. Fascinating stuff! These western towns have quite the history of boom and bust. It’s almost like it’s in the karma of the place.
Nina
We just left that area a couple of weeks ago. There is a lot to see just a little further north of Trinidad, especially along Highway 160. If you follow Highway 12 west from your park, you can follow the Trail of Legends… which is quite beautiful and scenic. Also, if you have a half-day, you can drive up near Colorado City and visit Bishop Castle… something you have to see to believe.
Safe Travels!
We had another blog reader recommend Bishop Castle so it’s now on “the list”. We just couldn’t muster the energy to move the few days we were there. Next time!
Nina
Like you guys, we enjoyed our short 4 day stay there as well. I thought the state park was pretty nice too!
It was the perfect place to rest up.
Nina
We drove that road in 2013 end to end and we just drove it after leaving Colorado Springs – Headed east first and then pick it up. I can’t say we had the same experience as we enjoyed those farm back roads. Little traffic as we headed to Las Animas to see friend.
SeeYa and Safe travels
Well I agree there was very little traffic. I could count on one hand the number of cars we saw on that 7 hour drive. But I just don’t think it’s a good road for 33,000 lb “beast” vehicles. Maybe something smaller with a more nimble suspension LOL.
Nina
Loved your comment about the “vibe” of a place, and your being in synch with Paul. Mike and I are exactly like that! I’ve always been amazed (and delighted) each time we go somewhere.. anywhere .. and feel exactly the same vibe from it. Your supermoon eclipse photo is wonderful! Enjoy the balloon fiesta. -Linda
Vibe is such a funny thing. I often wonder if that vibe connection is part of the reason we mesh so well together, Paul and I. We are really very different people and yet we harmonize perfectly in the places we enjoy. Such a interesting psychological topic!
Nina
And I thought Michigan roads were bad. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that in the Mitten state, Nina! 🙂
Thanks for the tip on Hwy 17! Sounds rough in more ways than one! Stay safe friends.
I love it when you tell it “straight!” The “downside” needs to be put out there too, no punches pulled, that not all Rv roads (and places) come with rainbows and puppy dogs. Hurray for you! And that your Highway from Hell and disappointment could be “undone” by a flight of ten beers… Priceless, just Priceless 🙂
I’ve always wondered why we don’t just give the eastern half of Colorado to Kansas and be done with it 🙂
Box Canyon Mark
HA! That’s the funniest comment I’ve seen in a while. Eastern CO definitely doesn’t feel like the CO we know. Like an entirely different country.
Nina
Rode down the entire length of that road in Colorado on my motorbike a couple years ago coming back from a trip to Michigan (kinda drove an indirect path back home) kept me alert! Enjoy New Mexico and if you can camp at Ute Lake by Logan NM. We were there last weekend and the weather can’t be beat: 80’s during the day and high 50’s at nite.
Ahhhh….80’s. I’m looking forward to 80’s. It’s been hitting 90’s almost everyday since we entered CO. Record highs are being broken. Hopefully the pattern will break this week-end.
Nina
Unfortunately Colorado Department of Transportation is one of the most incompetent in the lower 48. They build overpasses that cannot be taken at speeds greater than 20 mph because of the dips at the structure joints.
If you had come down I-76 to I-25 you would still have found the headliner in a number of places. It seems that CDOT approves whatever the contractors do.
I agree about Trinidad. I guess you did not get up the hill from the center of town to see the truly magnificent only homes.
Would like to try your brewery tomorrow night when we are there but they are not open Monday-Wednesday. Oh well, try later and thanks for the great write-up.
They are open Tues. They are only closed Mon and Wed. Sorry you’ll miss them!
Nina
Just found your map. GREAT! I plan to use a lot of it in New Mexico, Arizona, California, Idaho, Washington (the Scablands) and Wyoming December through May.
Awesome! Glad it’s helpful!
Nina
Thanks for the route report, we’ll make a note of it! Our first trip west, from North Carolina, took us through Louisiana. It was the WORST. We were in a pickup truck towing our travel trailer, and I thought we would perish on that road. The inside of the trailer was a mess when we stopped for the night. I5 through California, and the Tehachapi pass are both “no go” areas for us. Tehachapi is pretty, but the bridge decks are not at the same level as the roads.
I can commiserate. That portion of the I-10 was terrible. We went through a major rainstorm while we drove through there too. Made for quite the experience!
Nina
Thank you SO MUCH for the wonderful review and comments! I hope you know the feeling was entirely mutual – we enjoyed your visit tremendously! You also have a new blog reader, that’s for sure. Hope you do actually make it to Maine someday, although the road to my land is equally, if not more, bumpy than eastern Colorado roads… Be forewarned! 🙂
How FUN to see you on the blog Carrie!! It really was a treat to visit your brewery, meet you and chat with everyone there. I love seeing small-town businesses like yours creating quality local stuff. Hope that lots of other blog readers come by and see you!
Oh and if we do make it to Maine, we’ll definitely give you a call. We can handle a bit of bumpy roads, as long as it’s not 7 hours worth 🙂
Nina
We’ve never been to Trinidad, but if we do we’ll definitely try out the brewery!
If you’re stopping in Taos, let us know!
Ah, I see you’re already in Santa Fe.
Yeah we rushed through northern NM and went straight to Santa Fe. Love the Toas area! We spent almost a month exploring The Enchanted Circle back in 2011. Definitely one of the highlights of our NM trip.
Nina
Don’t miss DR. FIELD GOODS Restaurant here in Santa Fe. It is on Cerrillos Rd by Jackalope. Great farm to table food and craft beer. Food is excellent—we always have margarita pizza but all of it is exceptional. Of course Santa Fe is filled with good restaurants.
Also—if you tire of paying and staying in the RV park —the Sams Club parking lot is in a good location with a biking and running path behind Sams. Nice dog area?
ALSO—Clafoutis French cafe is a must!! It is right next to the Lotta Burger when you drive into town—ask anyone. Reasonable and very very good.
Have fun—! Write if you need anything in SF….Cynthia (we are off wheels now and live here)
Oh bummer! We’ve already moved on. We only had a single day in Santa Fe so we picked a restaurant at random on Yelp. It was OK, but your recommendations would probably have been much better!! On the list for next time.
Nina
Great pictures of Trinidad! Another neat little spot you two have discovered. Thanks so much for the heads up about the road. What a horrible 7 hours in such a situation. Hope you didn’t have too much dolphining. That stuff gives me a headache. Your picture of the eclipse is just amazing. Right up there with the professional pictures I’ve seen. How in the world did you do that? So cloudy and rainy here (what else is new) that I didn’t see a thing. I just can’t imagine how powerful it would be to see that in person.
For the eclipse pic I just put my big camera on a tripod and took pics as it was happening. Then I put the sequence together in Photoshop. It really was quite the thing to see. I’m glad I got the chance!
Nina
Great post. Absolutely amazing eclipse pictures!
Thanks. It was a treat to see it! Can’t quite believe it won’t happen again until 2033.
Nina
Beautiful pics, Nina. I’m glad you survived the beating of the goat path. Those are never fun. But I got a good laugh from your description of the cure upon finally arriving! Lol!
Trinidad looks like a really interesting small town with quite a history. I’m glad you were able to get some R&R and some quality brews while there. I hope NM is a lot better traveling than the Colorado highway torture. Have fun. 🙂
So far the NM roads have been fine, but we’ve mostly stuck to the big Interstate here. Hope we don’t have another drive like the one in CO again….it’s hard on the liquor stores LOL.
Nina
What day do you check in @ Abq balloon Fiesta, we check in @ 1200 pm Thursday, fantastic stories, Ron & Marie
We just checked-in yesterday so we’re already here.
Nina
Thanks for the heads up on the hiway leading to trinidad. We go to Colorado every summer and like to take a lot of back roads so will be sure and skip that one. If you go thru Colorado Springs on I-25 you will experience more than just dips on the road as it is in bad shape. we saw a semi almost lose control last year when he hit one of the bumps and caused his tractor to jump up in the air.
Trinidad was the sex change capitol of the world for years. I ran a coffee route thru there back in the 80’s and several of the bar/restaurants were my customers. you would see several of the people that were there for that in different states of dress, men with beards wearing dresses, etc. Also in some area of downtown the streets where raised up, cant remember when or why, but some buildings have store fronts that lead to nowhere down in the “basements” of the building. very interesting to see back then. Enjoy the ballon festival, cant wait for your pics!
Fascinating stuff! Cheers for staring your history of the place!
Nina
That does look like a cool town. I would love the old buildings. And the beer.
What a difference a good road makes! A noticeable difference between OR and CA on 395 for sure. Love the vibe-thing, as Bill and I share it too. Both for towns and for landscape. To feel a place as well as see it adds so much to the experience. Love the variety of skies in your pics – and the fuzzy stalk. The little brewery sounds perfect.
The vibe thing is interesting, isn’t it….and it’s so instantaneous. I’ve had a few towns (just a few) where the vibe has changed for me the longer I stayed there, but for most places my initial feeling is the one that sticks. And I DO love that Paul and I always feel the same way…amazing considering how many different places we’ve been to.
Nina
A Friend of mine decided to escape the snow and wind of North Dakota. He was all packed up and ready to go, his pickup truck was piled high with all his worldly goods. I got out of my squad car and began walking around his pickup as we said our good byes, and I noticed that he had tied a snow shovel on one side of his rig, and tire chains on the other. When I asked him about these items, he explained, he said “I am going to start out on US Highway 281 (which runs though the town were we lived then) and drive until someone asks me what those things are, thats where I plan on setting up our new home.
Lots of logic there.
Absolutely amazing eclipse photos — the best I’ve seen anywhere. Your description of your teeth-jarring seven hour journey on Hwy 71 makes me want to cross that one off of our list, though. We’ve done that stretch of I-10 through Louisiana and I know exactly what you’re talking about! Traumatizing, for sure.
Almost every RVer I know that’s done any amount of traveling in the East has stories about the I-10. It’s legendary!
Nina
I lived on a SW Kansas farm 10 miles from the Colorado state line near Walsh, CO. I always thought SE Colorado was one of the most desolate places I had ever seen. Now we winter in AZ places that don’t look that much different. I guess desolate is growing on me.
The desert landscape definitely grows on you, but I have to admit some of the landscape I saw around 71 was bleaker than just about anything I’ve seen. Lots of grass, not many cactus or other features. It was pretty surreal.
Nina
Heh, I haven’t even finished reading this entry yet, but the description of the roadways is making me laugh ~ so descriptive! 🙂 I have a bumpity-bump ride in my truck house anyway, so roads like that are going to be so…fun?
Now on to the rest of the entry. 🙂
Parker
We’ve been to and through CO many time but have never stopped at Trinidad. It sounds adorable, and it’s now on the list. Thanks!
Definitely worth the stop, especially for the beer 🙂
Nina
We can understand the bumpy roads, plenty of them around here as well. If you get near Truth or Consequences NM (Named after a favorite old TV show with Bob Barker as host) look into any campground on Elephant Butte Lake. A strange site off the side of the Interstate. I recall our first trip down that way in 1972, my wife spotted the lake and said LOOK A LAKE! Well we had been driving in desert for so long I though it must be a mirage, and said as much, but she was right! (as usual) so after getting settled in at Fort Bliss Texas (read middle of El Paso) we purchased some camping gear (our first venture into that sport) consisting of a cheap cabin tent, and with our 1 year old son, and 4 moth old daughter, and drove back to that lake. We sat up our tent and gear and had a wonderful time although it was sort of spooky being the ONLY ones on the shores of that huge lake (Well we couldn’t see anyone else if they were around). That started us on our continual upgrades from tent to topper -to pickup camper – back to popup tent camper – to ancient travel trailer – to 4 more travel trailers, each newer then the other, then to Motor Homes, always class A’s to the one we have today. Wife is loading her up as I type, as we NEED to get going, her cough is getting worse every day, and with cold weather coming, closing up the house has made things even worse. Our daughter now has decided she would like to come along and work camp along the way. Not sure how that is going to help but her Doctor has said she should get out of town because of the tension here, Not going into all that but the 3 of us should make a nice filling for our RexAir. She is going to have her eldest cat put down as the cat is very ill and take along the young (retarded) cat. Hopefully that cat will get along with Smoky our guard cat.
Anyhow happy bumps and crashes, hope you find a smoother road soon. I was considering taking US 281 South but may just change my mind and take the Interstate picking it up in Wyoming and heading south.
We’ve stayed at Elephant Butte. Review of the campground & the post(s) of our experiences in the area are under the NM tabs at the top of the blog.
Nina
We just left Trinidad yesterday, we spent a month up on the hill above Trinidad Lake SP and found the area a great jumping off place for exploration. Wasn’t that moon awesome?
Yup, the moon was awesome. Did you see my eclipse series photograph at the bottom of the blog post?
Nina
I must agree with Laurel. Your eclipse shots are the best I have ever seen, hands down. As for Hwy 71, we will take a pass.
Yay! Thanks for the review, as we have planned a 2 day stay this Sat and Sun, super excited!
Hi,
sorry to hear about your unpleasant drive. Being from here (CO), I know most of the back roads from my biking trips. I have a little trick I use when planning my routes. Using Google maps, I zoom-in on a few intersections, road sections on my planned route and use the Street View to check the road quality. Sometimes (not always), you can guess the pavement/road quality from these pictures. Not a 100% solution, but better than nothing. Good Luck.
Smart little tip. I’ll try it next time we take one of these back roads.
In June, I drove Hwy 160 from Trinidad, CO all the way to near Joplin, MO. Didn’t take long for me to figure out that the best way to transverse that stretch of beautiful monotony in Eastern Colorado was to straddle the center line (no traffic after all), giving me plenty of time to dodge the potholes.
We ended up driving in the middle most of the way too…altho’ some sections were too rough even for that. Like you said though, almost NO traffic the entire way.
Nina